After investing
a lot of time and energy in other armies, my pal Pat and I have returned
to our “core” forces: Orks and Fighting Tiger Space Marines, respectively.
Pat has declared 2004 to be the “Year uv da Ork”: he has dedicated himself
to reorganizing and painting his greenskins. I have launched the “Fighting
Tiger Recruitment Drive,” and will be adding 40 Scouts to the 20 I already
have to make a full detachment of trainees.

As 2004 goes along, we’ll have lots of articles and features related
to Orks and Scouts. To kick it all off, we thought we’d fight a battle
and let you know how it turned out.

Droogies: 2000 points of OrksPat
blew the dust off his ladz (left on the shelf lately in favor of his Space
Wolves and Daemonhunters) and
assembled a horde of ground-pounders accompanied by some speedy vehicles
and some serious firepower in the form of a Looted Basilisk. Pat’s always
liked Blood Axes, and tweaked his army to take advantage of the new clan
rules in White Dwarf #289 and the changes to the Looted Rhino presented
in the Imperial Armor update.

Newbies: 2000 points
of Space MarinesKnowing
ahead of time that I’d be facing greenies—and STILL smarting from the whuppings
they gave me in the Blood Deserts of Auros
IX Campaign—I went for a very shooty army based on Scouts, Scouts,
and more Scouts, with a few supporting units thrown in. The idea behind
the “Recruitment Drive” is that Tiger losses were so severe on Auros IX
that they’ve had to induct a lot of “newbies” to supplement their forces.

We played at
Pat’s house, on his 4' x 4' table, and randomly rolled up “Recon” as the
mission. I tend to think that Pat’s table is a little too small for 2000
points, so we agreed to shorten the deployment zones to 12" instead of
18".

As is our usual habit, Pat set up
the terrain and I picked what side I wanted. I tried to maximize my fire
lanes, decided to keep my Chaplain and the “assault” Scouts in the back
as a counter-attack force, and vowed to stay well out of the Orks’ clutches.

Above: Tigers
and Orks deploy. Some of the Scouts are primed, not painted

Pat assembled a
huge phalanx of Shoota Boyz, Flash Gitz, and Slugga Boyz, backed up by
Warboss Sho-T BigHed, on his left; placed his Warbikes and his Basilisk
(behind cover) in the center; and deployed the two Looted Rhinos (with
Tankbustas and Burna Boyz) and the Trukk Boyz on his right. He infiltrated
the two units of Kommandos (the sneaky git) and made a few practice rolls
with his prized possession, The Loyal Green Die ™ , which has won many
a close game for his Orks.

Unfortunately for
him, my Communist Orange Tiger Dice ™ beat out TLGD for the roll to see
who went first.

Turn 1

When there’s
a heap of Orks right in front of you, there isn’t much need for mental
calisthenics: just stand and open fire! I unloaded everything I had into
Pat’s army. When the smoke cleared, I had destroyed one Looted Rhino and
killed all but one of the Tankbustas that had been inside. One Kommando
unit was reduced to a pair of ladz holding their ground and the other Kommando
unit was reduced to three ladz falling back. I shook the other Looted Rhino
(the one blocking my line of sight to the Trukk), tagged a few Shoota Boyz
(at the front of Pat’s very impressive phalanx), and knocked three of the
five Bike Boyz off their saddles.

Above: Pat
begins his turn after the Tigers finish shooting up the joint

This may come as
a complete surprise to you, Gentle Visitor, but on Pat’s first turn, the
Orks moved as fast as they could toward my lines. Who’dathunk, eh?

The Kommandos that
had been falling back mobbed up with the Slugga Boyz and all the droogs
on foot advanced 6". The surviving Looted Rhino drove 13" (thanks to their
Red Paint Job) and the Burna Boyz got out to play with matches. The Trukk
followed, moving 25". The pair of surviving Warbikes zipped up 12".

The Looted Basilisk
lobbed a shell right on top of my Devastator Squad with the heavy bolters,
killing three guys (ouch!) and two Marines from the Tactical Squad nearby.
One shot, 105 points worth of Tigers down. Not too shabby, and to top it
off, my Devastators failed their Pin check and would spend the next round
crying for their mommies.

Above: Pat's Looted
Basilisk, "Da Big Booma"

Despite their snazzy
guns, the Flash Gitz did nada against the Scouts atop a building near the
center of my line, but the Shoota Boyz used their big shootas to bag two
of those Scouts. I imagine that the Boyz indulged in some hearty trash-talking
at the Gitz’s expense. As they zoomed up the field, the Warbikes took out
two more Scouts from this squad (ouch!).

On my left flank,
the Burna Boyz shot down one Land Speeder from the Marut Squadron, then
charged the other and flambéed it. Bastards!

As the Burna Boyz (left)
dismount and attack, the rest of the Orks surge forward

Turn 2

Let’s see: one
of my Devastator Squads was pinned, one Scout Squad had taken 40% casualties,
and I had two mobs (the Pyros and the Trukk Boyz) threatening my left flank.
Well, wasn’t that just ducky? In situations like these, I’ve found that
violence almost always solves the problem. So again, I resorted to large-caliber
weapons. Lots of them.

I killed 8 out of 10 Burna Boyz,
destroyed the Trukk Boyz’s ride, and gunned down 5 out of 10 of them. My
Vindicator also stunned the Burna Boyz’s Looted Rhino.

So much for my left flank. My forces
in the center tried to finish off the rapidly-approaching Warbikes, to
no avail. I had run out of targets on my right, so the Tac Marines and
the Devastators’ Razorback advanced up the field, intent on targeting the
phalanx of Ork infantry during my next turn.

Tigers surround and fire
upon the Burna Boyz (left) as the Ork phalanx approaches

The Orks continued
to surge forward. Pat’s Basilisk veered off-target but nevertheless pasted
three “assault” Scouts lurking near the Devastators he had hit before.
The Flash Gitz and Shoota Boyz fired again at the Scouts on top of the
building, with the Gitz killing one newbie.

Above: The
green tide relentlessly moves in....

The Bike Boyz slammed
into a “tactical” Scout squad in the center of my lines, killing two of
them before being dragged down and beaten to death with the butts of the
Scouts’ boltguns. On the left, the surviving Trukk Boyz and Burna Boyz
charged my other Devastator Squad, killing 4 out of 5 of them and causing
the Marine with the plasma cannon to fall back.

Turn 3

In my Movement
phase, my two Razorbacks continued to steadily roll forward 6" up the field,
as they had the whole game. My surviving Land Speeders swooped around,
targeting the nearest Ork units, as they had been doing. Chaplain Daksha
Ram and the “assault” Scouts moved up to head off an impending Ork charge,
one unit of “devastator” Scouts had no line of sight and slid left, but
everyone else stood still and fired.

On the left flank, “Man-eater VI,”
one of my Razors, fired its twin lascannons at the Basilisk and shook it—no
noise from “da Big Booma” next round! The Land Speeders, both units of
“tactical” Scouts, and the Devastator with the plasma cannon unloaded on
the Trukk Boyz and the Burna Boyz. The Mekboy’s kustom force field kept
him alive while everyone around him was annihilated; even so, he fell back
6" and would continue falling back in Pat’s turn.

In the center, my Vindicator fired
into the Ork phalanx, killing a Shoota Boy and three Flash Gitz. The unit
of “devastator” Scouts that hadn’t moved sniped five more Shoota Boyz.
My Marines on the right contributed to the carnage, with the Tactical Squad
and the two heavy bolters of the Devastator Squad combining to down seven
Flash Gitz. At this point, the Gitz decided they had had enough, and fell
back 10".

Above: The
Tigers just "keep on keepin' on" with the bolters and the big guns...

On Pat’s turn,
the Orks doggedly continued their advance up the center of the board. After
a few stern words from Warboss Sho-T BigHed (“Where do yoo happy jackholes
tink yooze goin’?”), the Flash Gitz mobbed up with the Slugga Boyz and
resumed firing on the Scouts atop the building, killing one trainee. The
Burna Boyz’s Looted Rhino used its twin-linked big shootas to kill another
Scout in that unit, and the squad fell back 5", abandoning the building.
The Shoota Boyz popped off some caps at the “devastator” Scouts that had
fired on them, bagging two newbies.

Turn 4

The Tigers continued
to blaze away at the Orks, with the Vindicator spewing a shell deep into
the Ork phalanx, killing six Slugga Boyz. More Boyz dropped as most of
my forces concentrated on the phalanx, and Pat conceded when one of my
Razorbacks destroyed his Basilisk with a shot to the side.

Above: With
little left on the board, Pat decides to call it a night and try again
later

Post-Game Analysisby Kenton KilgoreWhen
the Burna Boyz and the Trukk Boyz carved up my Devastator Squad in Turn
2, I felt sure that Pat had the game in hand. What saved me, I believe,
is that the Marine with the plasma cannon sensibly fell back and the Orks
were unable to beat his roll and keep him locked in hand-to-hand combat.
This left the Orks with no option but to consolidate, which didn’t help
them much, as they were surrounded by lots of Tigers with guns. Under the
old assault rules, those Mobs would have swept into the “tactical” Scouts
nearby and diverted enough attention so that the infantry phalanx would
have steamrolled into the center of my line.

Kudos to the Basilisk,
which I could do nothing against until my Razors moved into position, and
to the kustom force fields carried by the Mekboyz. A 5+ Invulnerable save
for every Ork within 6" and vehicles nearby count as being “hull down?”
Sweet.

Post-Game Analysisby Patrick EibelI
think this was an unfortunate case of the facing the wrong army with the
troops I had selected. Against a standard Marine force I would have fared
better, as his numbers would be fewer, but with all of those darned Scouts,
Kenton’s force practically outnumbered mine!

One of the hardest
things to do with Orks is finding a balance with mobility. The Orks have
three types of units:

When you mix
these forces together, you end up with disjointed waves of troops that
move at different speeds and cannot support each other. In this battle,
my right flank reached the enemy by Turn 2 while my left flank plodded
along the entire game. All Kenton had to do was handle the right side,
then turn his attention to the left.

To address this, I should have taken
either plodders and slow vehicles or slow vehicles and fast vehicles so
that the units would be more evenly paced. For instance, for this battle,
having two squads of 30 Gretchin to screen the footsloggers would have
helped to soak some of the enemy fire.

I am working
on an article that will describe how I am arranging my army of over 300
Orks (my, that’s a lot of greenskins!) into two detachments that basically
follows the criteria above. I hope to fight some more battles against Kenton’s
Scouts to help gauge the validity of the changes I am making.

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